I think the Houston Astros showed how little clue they have by firing manager Brad Mills. The firing itself was not a surprise, with the Astros sitting at 39-83, worst record in the major leagues. On the surface, it seems just that a manager who has guided his team to that bad of a record deserves such a fate. Especially this is his third straight losing season, starting out 76-86 in 2010 and going 56-106 in 2011. So its safe to say the team has done worse since he took the helm after being Terry Francona's bench coach in Boston.

The honest truth is the Astros first hired Mills, then took his team away. First they moved Roy Oswalt and Lance Berkman in 2010. Then they traded Hunter Pence and Michael Bourn in 2011. They finished off with getting rid of Brandon Lyon, Brett Myers, Chris Johnson and Wandy Rodriguez in 2012. Is that Mills fault? Was he supposed to talk the front office into keeping his good nad even marginal players? A fair case could be made that the Astros were going nowhere whether they moved these players or not. Touche' but its a steep challenge to make a stripped team overachieve. I doubt John McGraw, Joe McCarthy, Bobby Cox or Tony LaRussa would have done any better with this mix. Even Casey Stengel could not make the 1962 Mets into winners. Maybe the Astros took their stand by blaming Mills. The Houston Astros will not stand for this kind of losing and its time to change the manager. Managers get fired all the time. I can't make a fair assessment of how Brad Mills is as a manager. Sure he showed some flaws, but most managers do when their team stinks. Hopefully he gets another chance somewhere, then a better conclusion could be made. But to inply that he is directly 100 % responsible for this terrible record and team is a dillusional statement. If the current Houston Astros team was playing a AAA schedule, it would still not be very good. I think it is more of a joke that the Astros have stopped competing to get ready for a move to the AL. They will essentially move into the other league as an expansion team. They deserve to be treated as one. While we all remember the Pittsburgh Pirates last making it to the postseason in 1992, we will all point to 2005 as the last time the Astros made the postseason. Hopefully, it won't be 2025.